Description

The Award-Winning, International Best-Seller

“I have success, money, women. I’ve been lionized by the public and the press. The world is at my feet. I’ve spread my wings and here I am, soaring above everything and everyone. But in reality, the descent has already begun.”

At age 20, Thomas Dekker was already earning €100,000 a year—as an amateur bike racer. The next year, he turned pro and his salary quadrupled then rose again to €900,000 as he established his position as a super-domestique among Europe’s wealthiest superteams. The sport marveled at Dekker’s rise as the young racer set his ambitions on capturing cycling’s biggest prizes for himself. Before long, though, Dekker found himself corrupted by money, dazzled by fame, and cracking under the relentless pressure to perform at a superhuman level.

In his international bestseller, DESCENT: My Epic Fall from Cycling Superstardom to Doping Dead End, Dekker reveals a sordid way of life full of blood bags, drugs, prostitutes, and money. DESCENT tells the story of a yearslong bender that exposes the brutal truth of his life as a professional cyclist. And Dekker is not alone; he names those who fell with him and those who aided in his downfall. In DESCENT, we take an unflinching look at the European peloton as it roars through its modern boom years—the height of the EPO era—and what we see is shocking. You won’t be able to turn away from this page-turning read about one man’s rise, fall, and redemption and what his story reveals about professional sports.

“It’s been a long time since there was so much ado about a cycling book. It’s a shock when you realize that a cyclist has a rock-n-roll life instead of a monk’s existence. It’s time to read it yourself and judge it.” —Racefietsblog.nl

“Thomas Dekker has done something brave here: He has opened sutured wounds with the hope that the rot will dry up. And for that alone we should be thankful.” —Erik Raschke, CyclingTips

“Let one thing be clear: For the average cycling lover, this is a hard confrontation with ‘dirty’ cycling.” —Laurens De Greef, Bicycletta Read & Ride

“Arguably the most shocking yet. . . . It is the uncomfortably raw, matter-of-fact descriptions of the hedonistic lifestyle of a professional cyclist just one decade ago, and the depths to which he sank as he tried to navigate his way through that minefield, which are most shocking.” —The Telegraph

“Unlike others—David Millar, Tyler Hamilton—Dekker doesn’t try to pass responsibility for his doping elsewhere: It was his choice. He shows a self-awareness that’s been lacking in most recent ’chamoirs’ and has been absent from most doping kiss-and-tells. Dekker’s willingness to accept responsibility for his own actions is refreshing.” —Podium Cafe

“Descent . . . has something that one rarely comes across in a cycling memoir—vulnerability.” —Erik Raschke, CyclingTips

“Descent should also be course material for cycling: Every commissaire, every DCO, every DS, every wrench monkey, everybody should be made to read Descent, not to see where Dekker failed himself but to see where the sport failed him and to learn how not to let it fail others.” —Podium Cafe

“What a relief it is to hear a former pro sportsman take responsibility for his actions. Perhaps this is what makes Descent so different; it certainly accounts for it being unputdownable.” —Sports Book of the Month

“Readers will be shocked by many passages about sex, drugs, prostitutes, and the hedonistic excessiveness and egotistical drive that it takes to succeed in pro cycling. . . . Each chapter is a conscious move toward the final stage of self-destruction, and when the end arrives, the reader, too, feels ruined.” —Erik Raschke, CyclingTips